Driver issue with Ultrium 448 SAS

I've got an ultrium 448 sas (p/n DW085A), connected to a dl380 G5 server. The hba is a SAS card SC44GE (p/n 416096-B21).It always worked fine, until I realise it wasn't doing hardware compression using ntbackup. Tapes are 200gb with /hc:off and 400gb with /hc:on. When the volume grew over 200gb, it just wouldn't do the backup.In order to solve this issue I tried to install a microsoft hotfix that would supposedly repair that issue. I got it from support.microsoft.com - it was the article kb 827475. When trying to run it I got a message saying that there was a windows update already installed, which was more up-to-date than this particular hotfix, so the installation was aborted.Then, I had the magnificent idea of checking www.windowsupdate.com. There was only one update left, it was precisely a hardware update for the Ultrium 448 SAS. I committed the biggest mistake of my life when I decided to install this driver, since from that day on it was impossible for me to run another backup again. I've tried on multiple tapes, with multiple volumes, but there's always a "hardware failure" in the error report of ntbackup, and backup is aborted very soon after it started.Since that day, nov. 24, i've tried almost everything, but it still won't work.The event viewer reported errors, all related to the lsi_sas controller, but I'd never touched those drivers and it used to work ok. I just committed the crime of trusting a driver update for the ultrium (not the hba) from microsoft official website. I promise I'll never do it again.I've updated the drivers for both the tape drive and the hba, with the latest version from hp website. I also tried to update the firmware for the hba, but I got an error saying that the software was for a "machine type" other than the current machine. I've got W2003 server x64. In the website, there's a version for each of the operating systems (W2003 32bit, and W2003 64bit), but although they're labelled differently the files are identical, and I get the same error with either of them. So I didn't manage to update the firmware.In desperation, I tried older driver versions for both the tape drive and the hba, but it wouldn't work either. I just got a wide variety of errors -from removable storage service (NtmsSvc) hanging at Stopping status, to all sorts of system errors in the event viewer with source "lsi_sas". It never worked again. I got back to the latest versions.

Current situation is:When I execute the backup, it starts ok, no problems with ntbackup.exe, rsm.exe or removable storage service. After a few minutes the backup is always aborted. Sometimes it lasts 5 minutes, and sometimes 30, but eventually it ALWAYS fails. I've got to do a 3 hour long backup, and I'd never had a problem with it until I installed that f****** windows update. Rolling back to the previous drivers didn't work either.The second it fails I get the following error:Event Type: ErrorEvent Source: Lsi_sasEvent Category: NoneEvent ID: 11Date: 12/9/2008Time: 2:28:59 PMUser: N/AComputer: OPERA-WEBDescription:The driver detected a controller error on \Device\RaidPort1.

The test hasn't finished yet. Apparently, these errors haven't prevented the test from running. As the last event shows, two minutes after the error, the tape went back to normal status. When the test finishes, I'll post the results.